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DePue recovering from harsh winter

DEPUE — The long, harsh winter weather hasn’t been too friendly to the residents and roadways in DePue.

Residents in the village have experienced frozen water lines, and a couple homes and one business are still without running water this month.

The village board held a special meeting Monday to discuss solutions to the frozen water lines. The goal is to reconstruct the lines, in order to prevent the issue from reoccurring.

Mayor Eric Bryant explained on Monday the village has provided the homes and business with 500-gallon and 1,000-gallon water tanks to help get by this winter. The fire department has been able to refill the tanks when they are emptied.

The village has also been faced with deteriorating roads, caused by plows and other winter weather conditions. The village was forced to close the east entrance into the village from Route 29 onto Lincoln Avenue last month, because of such bad deterioration.

Bryant said the village hired Starline Construction of Ladd to come in and fill the holes with gravel as a short-term solution. The village will now have to look into long-term solutions to repair the road once the weather turns. Bryant said the short-term solutions are “not great, but it’s better than what it was.”

Looking ahead at how the village will have to finance the long-term repairs, Bryant said the village could dip into the $975,000 settlement money it’s expected to receive from Exxon Mobile/CBS Corporation any day now. However, village engineer Don Bixby will also be looking into grants, which the village could apply for and use specifically for the road conditions.

“We’re looking at all the options. We’re keeping an eye on grants for road damages, so we would capitalize on that and make the settlement money go further,” Bryant said.